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High House Nursery

Ofsted: Good
(Apr 2023)
·
4.1(11 parent reviews) ·High House Farm, Mill End, Bishop's Stortford, CM22 6PL · Essex
Number of places
103 places
Age range
0–4 yrs
Last inspected
Apr 2023
Local authority
Essex

About this day nursery

High House Nursery provides a vibrant and secure educational environment where children from birth to five years old can flourish. The nursery focuses on fostering curiosity and a love for learning through stimulating play and nurturing care, preparing each child for a successful future.

They offer year-round care in spacious facilities, operating from 8 am to 6 pm. The nursery prides itself on creating a calm, caring, safe, and stimulating atmosphere, prioritising staff well-being and adhering to Ofsted Early Years Register standards, which monitor the quality of early years provision in line with the Statutory Framework for the Early Years Foundation Stage.

They utilise the "Development Matters" framework to guide each child's unique developmental journey, and a dedicated "Key Person" system ensures individualised attention and consistent communication with parents. Progress is monitored through regular observations, tracking against developmental milestones, and ongoing assessments.

The Parent Zone platform keeps parents updated with daily activities, learning milestones, and direct communication with their child's key person. High House Nursery emphasises a holistic approach to learning, focusing on both foundational skills and building blocks of knowledge as outlined in the EYFS framework, including Prime Areas such as Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language, and Physical Development, and Specific Areas like Literacy, Mathematics, Understanding the World, and Expressive Arts and Design.

The nursery also provides healthy, dietitian-approved meals cooked on-site and offers various enriching extracurricular activities.

Our ethos

High House Nursery Ltd. provides a holistic approach to learning, focusing on fostering curiosity and a love for learning through stimulating play and nurturing care. They utilise the EYFS framework and the "Development Matters" guidance, with a "Key Person" system to ensure individualised attention and development aligned with milestones.

What it's like

Leaders have worked hard and sought support from other professionals to raise standards since the last inspection. Children and babies show that they feel safe and secure in the nursery. They happily separate from parents and know the routine when they arrive.

Play-based learningEYFS curriculumKey Person approachYear-round careHealthy meals

Pricing & funding

Funding accepted

15 hours — working parents (9 months–2 yrs)15 hours — universal (3–4 yrs)15 hours — eligible 2-year-olds30 hours — working parents (3–4 yrs)
Pricing on request

This nursery doesn't publish its fees online. Contact them directly for an up-to-date price list and availability.

Key facts

Session types

All day, Morning (10:33-14:16), Afternoon (14:16-18:00)

Food

Meals and snacks designed by nursery chef and paediatric dietician; excluded from funded hours

Opening hours

08:00am – 6:00pm

Age range

0-5 years

Term time / All Year

All Year

Established

2003

Ofsted Inspection

Ofsted rating for High House Nursery

Last inspected 12 April 2023

Safeguarding effective
Overall effectiveness
Good
Quality of education
Good
Behaviour and attitudes
Good
Personal development
Good
Leadership and management
Good

What it's like to attend

Leaders have worked hard and sought support from other professionals to raise standards since the last inspection. Children and babies show that they feel safe and secure in the nursery. They happily separate from parents and know the routine when they arrive.

Inspector highlights

  • Leaders and managers have made significant improvements to promote teaching and learning.
  • Children show they are developing a good understanding of others and the world around them.
  • There is good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
  • The outside play areas have been reorganised, and plans remain in place for the continued improvement of these areas.
  • Leaders have established a broad curriculum and staff know the children well.

Areas to develop

  • 1extend the monitoring of staff practice further to ensure that they receive focused feedback and coaching to embed a purposeful curriculum of what they need children to learn and to raise the quality of teaching to a consistently high level
  • 2support staff to plan meaningful, sequential learning opportunities and ensure that children have plenty of time to develop and practise their new knowledge and skills to support future learning
  • 3strengthen current procedures for assessing risk to ensure that all staff have a clear understanding of their responsibility.
Inspection #10283960 · Source: OfstedView full Ofsted report

What parents say

Verbatim quotes recorded in the Ofsted inspection

Parents comment that they receive information from staff about what their children are learning.

They appreciate the different experiences their children enjoy.

Parents like the 'parent hub', where they can obtain further information relating to various early years topics and borrow story books to share with their children at home.

Inclusion & environment

How they support every child

SEND provision

There is good support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. Staff identify when children need extra support, work with parents, and make ongoing observations to provide pertinent information for other professionals to ensure early intervention and help close gaps in learning.

Outdoor space

The outside play areas have been reorganised, and plans remain in place for the continued improvement of these areas. Children develop physical skills as they climb and slide or balance on colourful beams. Riskier play enables them to think about personal safety.

Parent Reviews of High House Nursery

4.1
(11)
sophie candfield
11 months ago

We have been on a long journey with High House with our boy who has multiple disabilities, but at every stage they have impressed me with their ability to manage whatever is thrown up and get on with it. Kelly the manager and Crystal in the pre toddlers room have just been so good at managing my boy and his issues, it's enabled me to go to work knowing that he's going to be safe and ever, ever so happy while I'm away. They update me throughout the day, they do language lessons one day a week, they keep tabs in their assessments of where he is developmentally, and stimulate him with great activities. The other kids look happy (I've spent a lot of time in the pre toddler room!). The food is cooked on site. This is a great place for younger years and SEN, in my experience. Nb there have been some rocky periods of management under different people before summer 24 (roughly when we started speaking to the nursery), but when Kelly stepped back into the role as manager, which she has been before, old staff who had resigned came back again. I saw that as a good sign and it has genuinely been really good since then.

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Natalie Lish
2 years ago

Our son is currently part of the Barnies and absolutely loves his days there! The staff are incredibly friendly, caring and attentive and provide in-depth feedback about his day and advice to further his development, such as potty training, when at home. The outdoor space is lovely and really helps him burn off some excess energy! Parents are invited to lots of events where you can stay and play to really see how your child is looked after and how they interact with the other children. It really does take a village to raise your kids and I'm very appreciative and thankful to the wonderful team at High House for helping nurture our son into the lovely, polite little boy he is!

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gshaw89 Shaw
2 years ago

Could not recommend High house enough! My child left there in the summer and loved it, from the outside its very deceiving as the garden outback is massive, so much space, staff in the room were always fantastic, always went in happy and left happy. When my child started, the nursery was going through a big change, but the difference from when we started to when we finished, it was evident how hard the staff and management team worked to make such positive changes, they introduced a coffee morning and a chance to go in once a month and join in with activities with our child which my partner always liked to attend. Special events like a easter egg trail, visits from ambulance crew. Would defiantly recommend.

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Charlotte Campbell
2 years ago

my experience with High house nursery so far has been absolutely fantastic. The staff provide daily stimulation and creative activates which are documented through the parent hub app. My son always gets so excited to attend nursery and is always greeted by staff and even management. The nursery offers a huge outside space with a forest garden, the nursery even has ducks which the children help to take care off, on top of all this the nursery offers football, Spanish and yoga classes, which make this nursery so unique . The stuff have always been so supportive throughout our time at High House nursery and i can not thank them enough.

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Charlie Dean
2 years ago

Our son has attended High House from ~9 months old and now approaching 2 years. He's always been well looked after and his days are full of fun activities that have broadened his understanding of the world! We were always nervous about what behaviours our boy would pick up when he's away from us and we couldn't be more pleased with what a fine young gentlemen he's becoming. He amazes us with the new words and behaviours he comes home with. Watching him act out all the moves and sounds for "wheels on the bus" has become a classic High House influence that we just love! It's very important to us that our son's caregivers share similar values to us and high house delivers above and beyond. Healthy meals, outdoor play, exposure to other cultures, treating others with respect and so on. Many thanks to the management team and special thanks to the baby & pre-toddlers team!

Read on Google

Reviews from Google for High House Nursery. See all on Google Maps

Inspection history
Improved from Requires improvement → Good in 2023

Date: August 2011

  • April 2023Good
  • October 2022Requires improvement
  • September 2021Outstanding
  • May 2015Outstanding
  • August 2011Outstanding

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